My Secret Love is a Billionaire

Claudya was sitting down between two benches at the football stadium, waiting for the class to begin. In any other circumstances, she would enjoy the break, but not now. Even though she was almost eighteen in a few months, she felt like ten because of the fear she was having. Her whole body was trembling. It was like that every day. Her enemies? Some brats from 12th grade, her colleagues, were enjoying bullying her. But this year they thought about getting her insight, even though they were the same age. She was so happy from the 9th to the 11th because of the fact that she was invisible. Somehow she managed to go like that, and those were the happiest 3 years of her life. It was her perfect status, but then 12th grade came and everything changed. Or better say, the cruel faith wasn’t in her favor one certain day. She was at the painting class and opened a jar of red paint from her locker, but when she went into the class, Tom, the school bully, wanted to go out, so they bumped into another, making Claudya spill her pain on his shirt. She tried to apologize but his mean eyes were scorching her and she knew he would not let her go. And like that it was. He was a total ass with a lot of popularity. A bad combination for Claudya. The teacher tried to explain too that it was only a mistake, but he would not listen. He whispered to her 'You will pay!' while the teacher wasn't looking, and so it was. At every chance, he and his friends would come to her and call her names. The bastard even tried to squeeze her once into a wall with the proposition that he would finish the harassment against her if she would sleep with him. Then she spat him in the face and he slapped her hand over her face, but she managed to run. She came home with a broken lip, wondering if her mom wondered what had happened. She explained that she had fallen over the bicycle but that was not the case. She was afraid to tell her mother because Tom had important parents in the town, and she was even afraid to go to school. She would cry herself to sleep every night at the thought she had to go to school the next day. They would insult her verbally, calling her names because of her red hair, making her give them her pocket money, and leaving her without serving lunch. They would treat her so badly, for a mistake that even they couldn't say for sure it was hers, and nobody would stop them. She was feeling so close to depression. Her position was like a child that is suffering and trying to protect himself. She was sitting down with her knees held against her chest and her hands to her ears. It seemed that she wasn’t to escape that place any time soon. Even with hands or ears, she could hear who was passing by and just heard the bullies calling her, but in a low voice so no teacher would hear them. They were just loving to inflict pain with no consequences. She exhaled softly and waited for them to pass her. The place where she was staying was hidden from their eyes but she could see them passing her. They were laughing and making plans for what they would do next to make her suffer more. Teenagers were the worst. Claudya preserved her position but was biting her lips, not knowing if it was safe to leave her place or not. She had the impression she couldn't hear them anymore but stayed a bit longer just to be sure. She was having painting classes with Mrs. Dwight where she loved to go, especially because the teacher would admire her paintings and was making her feel so good. She could not miss the class with Mrs. Dwight. She shook her head and on the impulse of the moment she raised and went out from her hidden place. That was a big mistake. She was looking right into her bully’s eyes. They spotted a small part of her shoe and waited for her to get out. They were enjoying what they were doing, with no fear. The tallest one was Tom. He started to smile and laugh after. “Well, well…” he said “What jumped right under the seats on the football stadium, our preferred person!” and started laughing hard along with 3 other of his friends. Claudia started trembling. All her body was in shivers of fear. Even her jar was trembling but she managed to tell them, “Leave me alone!” she almost screamed. The fear panicked her and she was unable to fight back. She did not know much but she cursed in her way the fact that she was unable to be a bit more powerful in front of them. Her try was received with hard laughs from the four boys. Tom was the worst. He stopped laughing and slowly went towards her. “Why would we let you alone? I like how you tremble when you see us!” and got his hand right on her chin and grabbed her with force in her backpack. “No!” Claudya screamed. “Please don't”, she asked again. But two of them were already searching in her backpack. She was on the edge of crying but maintained her tears. She thought if they were doing this to her with no fear of consequences, it would be worse for her to cry. She bit her lips and waited for them to finish searching. Normally she wasn't so weak, but somehow they were bringing that into her. Her weakness. She looked miserable and the worst thing was that at that time there was nobody on the football field. It seemed that it would rain soon and the coaches decided to have their classes indoors. She tried to look as stately as possible but she was failing miserably. She looked at those two boys at how they were throwing out of the backpack all she had, just to laugh at her when she would have to grab it all. Why they were humiliating her like this she could not understand. It wouldn't be the first time they have done that. Sadly, they were coming from wealthy families in town and you could not say or do anything against them unless you wanted to move from the town. While watching those two and waiting for them to finish, she heard the voice of Tom, “What are you looking at, Baby carrot?”, she hated that nickname. All because of her red hair. “Seems you are nervous. Want to calm you down?”, he said with an evil smile on his face. 'That didn't sound good', Claudya thought. She saw Tom approaching her. He was quite tall for his age and she was smaller, having her head under his chin. She just knew she would not have any chance to do whatever he thought to do with her for amusement. Suddenly, everything developed quickly and, in the meantime, Claudya felt like she would start to faint soon even though she did not know the feeling because she had never fainted before! Tom came and grabbed her arm, making her make a small sound of pain. The two looked at the backpack and threw it away and the last one was laughing like something really funny was about to happen, but he laughed in advance. It crossed her mind that maybe those three were bullied also by Tom. She was thinking that maybe someday he would pay off all of this. Tom put his hand around her neck, making her breathe hard. Tears were falling from her eyes. The guy was crazy. Then something happens. At first, she wasn’t sure what distortion she was seeing. She could only feel a pain in her arm because Tom was squeezing her arm like he wanted to imprint his fingers. Now Claudya could not hold off her tears anymore. But she did not say anything, just let the tears run down her face because of the pain. That was the reason why she could barely see the distortion but she heard it very well. A deep voice that would make anyone else crawl, but for her, it was like an electrical vibe. She remembers she felt that once when she had touched some wires of a small electric car. That was the same thing that was happening to her right now. And heard the words of the bearer of the voice. “Let the girl go and I will spare your noses.”, Tom stood still and nobody was moving. Tom replayed. “We do whatever we want, it is not like you are from this school, so beat off!”, but he let loose of her hand for a little bit, making her have the tears stop so she could see who that boy was. She had never seen him before, that was for sure, because she would have remembered him. He was a tall boy, taller than all the bullies. Dark hair and blue eyes that were shouting spears towards the other boys. He was an apparition! But the most Claudya appreciated about him was his calm. They were all some dumb teenagers but the controlled tone he was using, made everyone think he might be older than what everyone expected. And he said calmly but funest, “I won’t say it a second time.” With a smirk on his face like he genuinely enjoyed the fact that his threat was mocked but not less dangerous. Tom, let go of my hand and started moving towards him. Claudya rolled her eyes in exasperation. Boys, no matter the age, will never stop trying to show each other who the rooster is. Tom approached enough to get on the defensive, but the new boy did not move. For sure he was waiting for the first move. He did not wait long. Tom made his hand a fist and wanted to punch the new kid. The hit went straight to the new guy's face but he moved so fast aside and punched Tom’s belly that it made him crawl. He started crying, threatening the new kid that he would pay for that. Claudya just wanted to go away from that place, but before she made herself invisible, she heard the new guy say. “I know your dad is the sheriff. Maybe he knows my uncle. I bet he likes a lot that you are taking the food from smaller kids.” The new guy did not await any answers from Tom and scouted the area to check if the girl was OK, but she was nowhere to be found. At a moment of distraction, she fled the scene. He smiled and turned his back to the boys. He did his part for good today; he needed to go and face the reality of a new school. He thought that all the time spent here would be so adventurous he might not get as bored as he first thought.